


Whoops

by honestgrins



Series: Bingo! [6]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, bingo: demon, klaroween, klaroween bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 16:11:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestgrins/pseuds/honestgrins
Summary: How the hell was she supposed to realize her Halloween decorations would summon an actual demon? (For Klaroween Bingo: Demon)





	Whoops

To be fair, it started as an accident.

Caroline took her role as Delta Nu’s social chair very seriously, and she felt it was her responsibility to produce the best haunted house for the sorority’s annual Halloween party. When she put together the binder section for decorations, then, she did the research to ensure the symbols she had the pledges spraypaint all over the cardboard facades were accurately spooky. Pentagrams, devil marks, some demonic names in ancient languages, she had it all. It wasn’t until she heard little April Young’s scream from the driveway that it occurred to her: using an archaic summons might actually summon something.

When she ran outside the house, Caroline was confused at how April cowered from some guy standing on one of the facades - which, rude. “Hey!” She called out, rushing forward to put herself between the stranger and a whimpering April. With a wicked smirk, the guy turned his attention to her, his dimples only temporarily distracting. Crossing her arms, she forced herself to ignore how hot he was with the hair and the lips. “This is private property,” she snapped, “and I don’t like that you’re scaring my sister.”

“I was merely going about my day, love, when your friend so crudely painted my call,” he explained in an accent that surprised Caroline, adding a worldly sense that didn’t quite fit on the Whitmore University campus. “It’s been a long while since someone dared to even try, so color me intrigued.”

“He just...appeared.” April was shaking behind her, likely rocked to her small town pastor’s daughter core. “I didn’t, I mean, what-”

Caroline wasn’t convinced this guy was what he implied, but she didn’t want April to faint. “Go inside,” she told the girl, not unkindly. Which, of course, confused April even more because she was nothing if not intense when it came to mandatory maintenance hours for the house. “Make yourself a smoothie or something, I’ll mark your participation as completed for today.” She watched her duck into the house without daring to look back, and Caroline turned an annoyed glare on the stranger who looked all too pleased at having caused a disruption. “Thanks for that. Now I’ll be a day behind on my decorating schedule.”

He shrugged, seemingly delighted. “Call it a hazard of courting a chaos demon, sweetheart.”

_Chaos demon._

It had been a common enough theme throughout her research, but Caroline struggled to pull whatever information her brain had filed away and ascribe it to the man standing before her. Dressed in jeans and a soft Henley, only his criminally good looks and an almost cruel glee at her examination let her even begin to believe that it might be true. “You’re not very tall for a demon.”

Her eyes squeezed shut, sure that insulting him was a bad idea; she couldn’t help but blurt it out, though! If she were designing a demon, an intimidating height would have just made sense.

Luckily, he laughed. “I’m a very old soul, so to speak,” he said. “Humans used to be shorter.”

“Right, yeah.” Caroline nodded, doing her best not to freak out - like she wasn’t casually talking about human existence with a chaos demon in her driveway. “So, thanks for coming, but maybe we just chalk this up to a case of ‘wrong phone number’ and go our separate ways?”

Smirking, he took a step toward her, alarmingly outside the painted circle in which he’d appeared. But Caroline refused to cower before him, despite most of her instincts screaming for her to run. “If only it were that easy,” he said, bowing slightly as his hands folded behind his back. “Unfortunately, once I’m summoned, there’s the simple matter of negotiating a deal to be executed.”

Caroline’s anger flared at the condescension she heard in his voice. “Excuse you, but you’re not going near April again. Pro tip, when girls flee from the sight of your face? They’re just not that into you.”

“Fear not for your sister,” he answered easily, “she did not summon me of her own volition. If I understand correctly, she was under someone else’s direction. Yours, perhaps?”

Glancing down to the ground, Caroline grimaced at the photo packet she’d copied for all the pledges from her binder. “So what? I don’t think I want any part of a deal with you.” As a business major, she knew the first rule of never approaching the table without knowing all the facts - and she was very much out of her depth. “You haven’t even told me your name or what you could possibly want from me.”

His eyes seemed to sear right into her bones, his smile sharp. “A brave one. I like a challenge.” 

Caroline fought against preening at the compliment she wanted to hear. “So do I, but I like winning more,” she replied, spine straightening. “And I have a feeling you don’t lose.”

“I don’t,” he answered simply, “but some negotiations have been known to benefit both parties, _Caroline_.”

Mouth falling open, she didn’t like the stab of fear in her gut. His expression fell, like he didn’t enjoy her fear either. “I didn’t tell you my name.”

“You’re smart to avoid questions.” He plucked at a loose curl, her hair only half done for a mixer later that night. She only just stopped herself from batting his hand away. “I have exceptional observational skills, such as overhearing young April explain our little standoff here to more of your sisters as they watch from the window.”

She blew out a breath in hopes of calming a wave of anxiety that suddenly left her off kilter - only to be expected when arguing with a freaking demon, right? “I’m not going to enter a negotiation if we’re inherently on unequal ground. It makes me uncomfortable for you to call me by name when I know almost nothing about you.”

Holding out a hand, he smiled at the suspicious way she looked it over for claws. “Oh, our negotiation has already begun, Caroline,” he warned, though it sounded oddly enticing as the words fell from his lips. “And my name is Klaus.” When he didn’t drop his hand, she reluctantly slipped hers into it with the full intention of pulling back as quickly as she could. But he surprised her by choosing not to shake it like a normal person; no, he gracefully brought her fingers up to his mouth for a small kiss. Her tongue wet her lips at the coarse rub of stubble, and she would have sworn his eyes burned as he watched. “For what it’s worth,” he said in a low voice, “I think we’re both going to enjoy this.”

Damn it all, Caroline thought he might be right.


End file.
